At its weekly press conference of 11 June 2008, MONUC said that it was facilitating the transport of a UN multi-agency team to the territory of Kasong-Lunda, Bandundu province, to bring much needed emergency kits and to evaluate the humanitarian and security situation of over 20,000 Congolsese deported from Angola.

On Tuesday 10 June 2008, MONUC’s Civil Affairs office in Bandundu facilitated the provision of a helicopter to bring a multi-agency team made up of MONUC (Human Rights), Bandundu UN humanitarian coordination team (UNFPA, FAO and WHO) and members of the provincial security committee in Tembo (approximately 900 km south of Bandundu city), to the territory of Kasongo-Lunda, to evaluate the security and humanitarian situation of the Congolese deported from Angola.

The total number of recorded deportees – 22,230 as of June 9, 2008 – continues to increase, in a situation the UNFPA describes as critical. Approximately 550 kilogrammes of freight, including covers and medical kits urgently provided by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), were also transported on the same flight.

UN assistance to those deported from Angola has been underway since 25 May 2008. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the DRC, 22,230 deportees have been recorded at the Kahungula border station in Bandundu province, including 20,336 men, 1,267 women, 316 boys and 311 girls.

These people are currently located between Kahungula and Tembo, about 95 kilometres from the border in the south of the province. A strong concentration of deportees has also been reported in Mawangu, between Tembo and Kahungula.

According to the Non Governmental Organisation Doctors Without Borders-Belgium, present in Tembo since 1 May 2008, there is a lack of food and covers for these deprived people, exhausted after long walks. Five deaths and one case of meningitis have been reported.

According to Caritas Luebo in the province of Western Kasaï, there are 5,260 deportees as the numbers increase. In the province of Eastern Kasaï, 32 people arrived at Wilongo in the past week and 74 young deportees arrived this weekend at Musumba, in the province of Katanga.

For the province of Bas Congo, the head of the Office of Migration (DGM) reports about 687 people deported people, the majority in a state of total exhaustion.